TE2800 in Classic car mag

[wattiefan]

i was at barnes a few days ago and picked up a classic car magazine(forgot the name) featuring alot of european cars. I always look for opels but usually they dont really have any articles on them. There was an interesting article in this one though that talked about a 1974 TE. 76 of these vehicles were made. Whats interesting is that they used a manta shell, and a bigger commodore engine. The car had no opel logos and from the outside it was a manta. Anybody else read this article? I will try to get back to barnes and get a copy.

[ungermm]

Transeurop Engineering built a really fast car by making a lot of modifications to allow a 2.8L Opel engine to be used in the Manta. I don't know of the recent article, but there was a 1974 article in Road & Track.

The Manta Owners Club

[heimue]

No more than about a handful of the original TE's have survived, and are known to be original (and kinda pricey ). They don't show "Opel" as the make in the title, but "Transeurop Engineering".

Dieter

[manta73wi]

The article was in the January 2009 issue of Thoroughbred & Classic Cars, which I came across at an independent magazine shop in West Allis that features a wide selection of specialist magazines. The article gives the background of the TE as Belgian racing engineer Vic Heylen got to know Bob Lutz, then chief of GM Europe, and a "what if"" led to the TE2800. The article says that 79 completed, all in yellow & black, and that every year 12-13 of them gather yearly in Europe. The original owner drove it from '74-'82, and then fell ill while rebuilding the ground floor of his home, so he drove it into the kitchen, added some walls and rented out the area. The current owner bought it when the original owner died, but then had to wait 7 years until the tenant moved out to get it out of the kitchen! Talk about patience!!
-Jeff W.

[timemachine]

That's pretty cool.

[DennisGardiner]

Originally Posted by wattiefan i was at barnes a few days ago and picked up a classic car magazine(forgot the name) featuring alot of european cars. I always look for opels but usually they dont really have any articles on them. There was an interesting article in this one though that talked about a 1974 TE. 76 of these vehicles were made. Whats interesting is that they used a manta shell, and a bigger commodore engine. The car had no opel logos and from the outside it was a manta. Anybody else read this article? I will try to get back to barnes and get a copy.

I wrote an article for the Blitz back in May of 2006.

[David McCollam]

Then there is this one.

[wattiefan]

Yep that was the same article i wrote. I did not buy the mag but was trying to piece it together from memory. David M is that yours? It is a beauty!!!

[robascona]

Great Manta, David.
Question: Does yours have the ventilated front disc brakes? I have seen pictures of the brakes they used with the TE2800 and they look like the hubs and rotors I have on my race prepped Ascona. If so, do you know a source of the hub and the rotor?
Thanks,
Rob

[wattiefan]

I meant read not wrote. Thanx for the extra information everyone.

[Aardvaark]

Here in my album is a 2 page test Road and Track did back in the day:

RT2_8L1 - Opel Photo Gallery

RT2_8L2 - Opel Photo Gallery